How did you get where you are today?

I used to record late at night, get home at 10 or 11am from serving tables and record until 8am the next morning, then sleep at noon.  When I was 14, I started my first band while I was growing up in Los Angeles, CA. We built up, got our songs on the radio, and got signed to Universal Records.

What do you think about this year’s Warped Tour compared to earlier ones you have been a part of?

It’s been cool, feels more laid back definitely. There was more drama last year, this year’s there has been a lot of great bands.  This is the heaviest Warped Tour, heavy music is a huge scene underground.

What are you looking forward to after Warped Tour?

Playing a big show in Richmond with Rise Against, having a live album on iTunes. I’m always writing new music, but we’re touring until the end of the year.

How would you describe your music to a new listener?

Intense rock, rock music, alternative.

Do you write all the music for your band?

I write everything, but things get added the more we play.

How did you come up with the title After Midnight Project?

Well, coming home late, all my music and stuff started late at night ha ha

Any background you’d like to give?

Let me get specific about the iPad vs iPhone, basically what the iPad represents is a new classification of computing that didn’t exist before, that is what I’ll call the smart pad. Just like the iPhone is a smart phone, the iPad is the first of what will become competing smart pads as well. One of the keys is it does not have a hinge with a screen, it’s flat so the screen is itself, there is no mouse and the keyboard is virtual. And there are some very distinct advantages to that, and the size and what you have versus features of the iPhone. One way to see the future of the iPad is to look at the iPhone 4: for example, you have video chat on the iPhone. If you took apart the iPad you’d see there already is a slot for a camera facing you for video chat. The camera’s not there, but the slot is, and it’s pretty easy to predict the next version will have video chat. We also know the new iPhone is thinner, wider, has better reception with wi-fi and better phone reception. Also, hi definition video recording and video playback, all you can be sure will be on the [next] iPad.

[A] couple of other things, you’ve got a faster processor in the iPad than you do in the current iPhone, which means things work faster, however the iPhone 4 will have the newer, faster processor. The biggest difference of course is then the size of that screen, and that is a very big deal. Because, with a larger screen you can do so much more on it. For example, using it as a way of watching my movies, hi definition movies. You can do it, but it’s not a lot of fun to do it on the phone, but on the iPad, whoa, it’s worth doing. If you look at the magazines on the iPad, wow, it’s stunning. If you look at newspapers on the iPad versus the iPhone, much better. What I’m getting at is because of that extra real estate, you can put in that extra functionality. When I made my apps, I was constrained to the iPhone screen. Now I’ve got a good sized screen, and I can redesign the apps to do far more than what the iPhone version can do. Rather than be redunant, you’ll find there will be specific apps designed to work specifically with iPad. Reading books on the iPad will be available soon. The Kindle did a pretty good job, but it was black and white and could only do one thing. But because the iPad is in color, does hi def video and so many other things. By the way, I’m not suggesting we’re doing away with paper books, but getting a good number of people into eBooks.

Increasingly, because of the processing power, voice recognition is getting exponentially better. Already, on the current version of the iPhone, if you have the google voice search app on the iPhone, the google search feature will go right to it and it’s very accurate. The new iPhone 4 will only work better, and the iPad works even better compared to the iPhone, why? Better processor. As we get more processing power the keyboard becomes less important, not unneeded but less necessary. Typing isn’t going away. But remember, with a blue tooth connection you can connect a keyboard to an iPad. What I’m getting at is I’m not predicting that typing will go away, but what I am predicting is that voice recognition is getting so good with these devices we’ll be able to type a lot less, and talk what we want to communication.

What we’re (Visionary Apps) doing, is we’re designing enterprise-level apps. We’re about to release a number of those. Apps for purchasing, apps for supply chains, apps for pharmaceutical companies, apps designed for home builders, for real estate agents, and by the way they’ll prefer to use the iPad to the iPhone because it’s a collaborative device. Apps for iPads or nurses, doctors will be able to see it on their smart phones and smart pads. This is another very interesting dynamic. With laptops, there’s a hinge and a screen. Nurses are up and moving around, real estate agents are up and moving around all the time, it’s hard to sit down and open a laptop and only you are looking at it. Not the case with an iPad, it’s a big enough screen we can all look at it at the same time, we can even put it on a table and all look down on it. Even better, because it is a touch screen, what that means is that multiple people can use the computer at the same time. What I’m saying is if I’m the plumber, and you’re the general contractor, we could put it down on the table and look at the blueprint together. We can zoom in on it using our fingers, if we wanted to see what the cement truck was we could look at that, if we wanted to see a schedule for when the roofer was coming in or the time we can just look at a different part of that app, and if the plumber wanted to question how something was done they could right away go somewhere else. The iPhone is a collaborative computing tool, more so than a laptop. Obviously there are a lot of times people are separate, so we can both look on laptop. But if we were working in the same room, we could both be working on a project.

By the way, another little thing, changes gaming completely. Imagine you and I, or another person, are trying to play a card game, it’s hard to do on a laptop, but if we all put it down on an iPad we could all have our hands facing us. Or chess, or checkers, see what I mean? It’s changing gaming as well. Really, it’s changing the user interface and how people work together.

Another prediction I’ll give you is we will see various sizes, especially with competing machines. Instead of making the same size, some may be a little bit smaller and some will make it a little bit larger.

Do you think that will be harder for the developer?

As a developer, I can’t design one app and make it work on everything. If I do that, it’ll be a crummy app. So, what you have to do right now is you have to design a different app for the iPhone or the iPad. And if I want an app for Android, I’ll have to design a separate app for the android. It does bring complexity to the app development.

Let me talk about why apple is growing so fast. All of the iPhone screens have the same size, same functionality, all about the same. What that means for a developer is it will work on the iPhones, and all of the iTouches, and iPads, automatically, which is huge. If I design for say, the Microsoft operating system, or the palm operating system, or blackberry, there isn’t one that fits all. There are a whole bunch of different phones that use that operating system. I would actually have to design a whole bunch of different ones. That is why they have so many apps that work so well. The droid on the other hand, it is easy for anyone to throw up an app on the droid. It doesn’t have all of the limitations. The negative to that is, you can get a lot of crummy apps. Because, let’s face it, there’s lack of standards and it will be hard to get to them.

Is there a strong competitor to the iPad being developed now?

There are competitors that are developing. Dell? How good they will be, and how strong a competitor they will be, is hard to see. And typically, what we’ve seen with competitors to the iPhone is none are that good, but they’re nice. They won’t be as good as the iPad, but they’ll be nice.

One thing I’ve noticed as I use touch screens is that it is becoming very natural, while mouse and keyboards took time and forced me to learn, do you think that is an important feature?

Oh yeah, definitely. That will be happening more and more. We have two major revolutions happening, we have the hardware revolution and the software revolution. The hardware revolution is, first we had mainframes and terminals, then desktops, then laptops became powerful and good enough they became the main tool, but the others didn’t go away. What I’m getting at is, the main tool is shifting to your smart phone and smart pad. The way you do your computing will shift away from your laptop to your smart phones and smart pads.

The software revolution is in apps. You look at the sales of apple’s apps, and you say, “Wow, never has there been a revolution faster than that.” Every one’s iPhone currently is the same, and even on AT&T, but my iPhone is unique to me because of the apps. The unique mix I have is probably unique to me. That means, I took a device called an iPhone, and what I did is I made it MY iPhone. What I’m saying is that the app revolution allows me to personalize the device to me. Getting the software is easy, loading it is easy, buying it is free or cheap. Software is becoming easy thanks to apps. It’s becoming easy.

Do you think the ease will decrease pirating?

I think it does help with pirating. Not worth the effort anymore. For example, there is an app called photo genie for the iPhone. Let’s just be futurists for a minute, we already know iMovie will be on the iPhone G4, do you think we’ll have iMovie for the iPad? We have a paradigm shift taking place with hardware and software. If you try to stick with the old you’ll be in trouble, you have to go with the new.

Apps are developing in a way that it seems to me they may become the primary way to access information on the Internet in the next decade, as opposed to a browser and websites. Do you see it developing in that way?

Oh yeah, absolutely. As a matter of fact, there have been studies done already. People who have smart phones aren’t spending a lot of time web surfing, they’re spending time using apps. If I were google I’d be worried about that. There whole model of making money on search is being threatened. The model google has is being threatened by this paradigm shift towards apps.

Magazine and news apps have been my favorite to use on the iPad, is there any type you’ve taken a liking to?

I think that what I really want in a magazine app and what I really want in a newspaper app, New York Times give you a pretty good way at looking at it. Especially if I look at magazines, there is a magazine app Zinio for the iPad that gives you a true magazine experience. The only thing I don’t like about Zinio frankly is that I want more magazines. And, of course, I’d like to have a choice of any one I want. I think the way it functions is very good. Secondly, it seems like Zinio is charging a similar rate as if you were buying a magazine. Face it, you don’t have to ship it or create it. So, developers have work to do in how you price them, but I think how you do them is very good on Zinio. By the way, I want all magazines, I want choices on all of them. When we’re done speaking, if you go download Zinio and you look at it, you’ll think it looks fantastic.

It is, without question, the smart pad classification of computing (not a net book, a whole new thing) that whole classification of iPad is a major revolution, just as the iPhone started a revolution in a 4th generation iPhone. Which, basically, was a third generation smart phone. Well, they’re again launching a revolution.

What we’re going to do with visionary apps with real estate, we’re almost done launching what we believe will be the primary tool a real estate agent will be using when working with a client, it’s not just the hardware it’s the apps and the software revolution that gives you the functionality for the marketplace. That’s what we’re trying to do, is lead the revolution with smart phones and smart pads

Here are some trends, check out the power point!

Young people -> older people

Anonymous -> real identity

Entertainment -> education, business, politics

Text-based communities -> media rich

Very true.

Click on photo for slideshow

On the heels of the highly successful Fredericksburg All Ages show last night at Eyeclopes Studios/Apple Music featuring The Bassic Needs, Prabir/Goldrush, The Like Whatevers and Elby Brass, here’s another slideshow, this time of FAA’s third anniversary show last fall.

That show included Paul Michel, The Like Whatevers (again) and the revival of Rocky’s Revival, whose performance of “Catie’s Song”  provides the backing audio (unfortunately, there were some sound-editing issues in trimming down the song for a slideshow slightly over one minute).

It’s been great to see FAA really take off over the last 3+ years. Because it shares so many common goals with the it! section, in terms of providing an outlet for local teens to express themselves, we’ve been in FAA’s corner from the beginning. But as yesterday’s lineup and audience revealed, the concerts are equally capable of becoming a destination for older music lovers. 

FAA is currently in the process of—for lack of a better word—legitimizing itself as a nonprofit. It’s become loosely affiliated with the All-Ages Movement Project, a network of similar organizations nationwide. At last night’s show FAA volunteers (including several of our it! staffers) promoted AMP’s current push to win $50,000 from Pepsi’s Refresh Everything campaign by voting online through Facebook.

For more on FAA, you can also check out the it! Facebook site, which features a news video shot and narrated by yours truly, it! editor Ben Sellers. And those in the area should plan to be at FAA’s next show on  March 20, featuring a more teen-oriented lineup of Carlos I’m Pregnant, Jaguar Shark, Dilemma Uncovered and In Bocca al Lupo.

Click on photo for slideshow

Ever wonder what the it! section is all about? Find out by watching this slideshow on the chronology of an it! meeting (music courtesy of The Strawmen).

Here you fill find a collection of posts compiled from the individial blogs of our staff.